My Fear Of You
by Justa Little Puppy
Summary: Blood and time can change anyone. Its been a while since Yoh has seen Lyserg, and he is excited when he is invited to visit since Lyserg had something to show him. But when he got there he sees its not a something but a someone, the X-Laws dont think that though, not even Hao himself thinks he's someone.Yoh saves and tries to help him, but how do you help someone you've tramatized?
1. Chapter 1: Slave

**Author's Note: Here it is! The first chapter to my first multi-chapter story! 'Maybe I should write a couple more one shots just in case' I told myself, 'Im not ready yet' I told myself. Well, regardless, I have had these ideas swimming around in my mind begging to be known to someone other than their creator, so even if they are not completely developed I shall grant them their wish and allow them freedom! Go forth my ideas, live, LIVE! Please review and tell me what you think, and I'll try to find out how to add chapters to a story cuz I have no idea how... *sweatdrop* Arf arf! This story has (not all that much though) curses, but since im also justa little girl I don't like outright cursing so they are 'starred' out and if you like cusing then you fill in the blanks the stars are holding. If I wrote things like "You little fudge!" or "You stupid itch!" or " You piece of it!" You all would probably be like ". . . Wait what?" Just wanted to make sure you guys knew that! ^-^**

**Disclaimer: Me no own Shaman King!**

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_He stood on top of the spirit of fire, a wild glint in his eyes though oddly enough he wasn't smirking, didn't even look smug. He had the Great spirit already, he was invincible. He looked down at his brother and his friends. No one could stop him now! He was surprised though as those below him suddenly grew 10 times the size of his spirit and the area became unnaturally dark and creepy. Yoh and his now enormous friends all looked really scary, Yoh being in the middle and looking the biggest and the scariest. They all began to laugh as Monster Yoh reached down and grabbed the normal sized shaman, who had been frozen in bewilderment which was slowly but surely turning to fear. Lifting him up to his enormous creepy face Monster Yoh laughed evilly before saying just as evilly_ **"Everything. . . will _not_ work out, for you at least!****"** _MonsterYoh cackled _as a_ bunch of normal sized Yohs jumped up out of nowhere behind monster Yoh with giant Amidamaru oversouls, their eyes fixed on the poor shaman Monster Yoh was holding as they let out screams of rage and aimed right for him. Monster Yoh let him go, causing him to fall with a bunch of normal sized Yohs falling after him. One Yoh managed to get close enough to strike him, and before he did he screamed, _**" YOU MUST DIE!"**

_Then he was transported suddenly to a dark, creepy room he knew too well. His hands had been handcuffed over his head so he had to stand, though his arms and legs ached. Someone was walking towards him, a malicious grin on said someone's face as he asked_ **"You ready to have some fun?" **_He couldn't answer that, it would only make the pain worse. Before his tormentor could make it at least 4 feet in front of him though he was suddenly transported yet again to a place he also knew too well. A burning house, a scream, running, the feeling of helplessness... He was more accustomed to this place, he didn't like it but at least he knew what to expect. He ran around and around the house, trying desperately to find a way-_

CRACK!

Hao woke up with a gasp, his back feeling like it was on fire. It seems it's time for him to get up... CRACK! Now.

" YOU LAZY USELESS EXCUSE WASTE OF SPACE! GET UP OR EAT NOTHING TODAY!" He was very much used to these threats and knew they would be enforced if he didn't obey, but even though most of the time he never had to be told twice to get up, or do anything for that matter, his body was a little slow today, and Marco tolerated no slowness.

"HURRY DA F**K UP!" Hao's body finally realized its huge mistake when it didn't wake up with his mind and allowed him to jump to his feet, turning to face Marco but not look him in the eye.

" I-Im sorry, Marco-sama." Hao said quietly.

Damn right your sorry, now get upstairs and clean! You've already earned yourself an extra hour in the 'Playroom!' Marco said with a smirk.

Hao flinched at that. The 'Playroom' was basically where Marco satisfied his sadistic desires for about 4 hours a day, and always looked for an excuse to add more hours to their 'Playtime.' Marco would drag Hao down to the deepest, darkest parts of the dungeon, which Hao was made to live in, all the way to some big metal door. After that Marco would just strap Hao to one of the torture devices inside and listen to Hao's screams with a twisted smirk of bliss. In short Hao was like the poor little hamster and Marco was the messed up sadistic kid.

Hao was half pushed out of the dungeon up into a very elegant hallway. It led into a living room which looked fairly clean, though Hao knew there was probably some sort of horrid filth Marco had left out especially for him. Hao didn't know how right he was. As Hao walked and was occasionally pushed into the room, he glanced at the long but narrow window inside. It still looked dark out, which mean't it was very early in the morning, maybe around 5:00. Hao never understood why he had to get up so early, all it did was make Marco grouchy and want to 'Play' with him more. But Hao never asked. He knew there would be hell to pay if he did.

Marco grinned smugly as he dragged Hao to a place behind one of the grey plush couches in the living room. Hao instinctively wrinkled up his nose as he saw and smelled what he was going to have to clean. A turd sat way in the back of the couch, looking gooey and fresh. Hao knew Marco had probably done that earlier this morning, but he said nothing. He walked over and crouched down, wondering if Marco had at least brought a plastic bag he could throw it away in, and then wondering why he even dared to half hope for that.

" Eat it." Marco whispered softly in his ear, his smirk turning smugger.

Hao tensed up. He had to...eat it? Marco, he knew, wouldn't kid about making him do something degrading. But eat his poop? That's...that's just...

Marco frowned and hit Hao hard on the back of his head, nearly knocking him out. "I said eat it!" He hissed harshly. Hao needed no further prompting. He had been stupid to think that Marco wouldn't make him do something like this. He had made him do worse things. If it would entertain his master. . .so be it.

Hao dropped down to his hands and knees and started picking up and shoving the sh*t into his mouth. He could hear Marco's demented laughter behind him, but he said nothing and ate all of it. If he didn't finish it all Marco would probably make him eat more. When he finished he made to stand up but a foot on his back pushed him to the floor. "Stay." Marco said as if he were talking to an unwanted stray dog." There isn't much to clean up here, so I'll go to the bathroom and make more things for you to eat. Consider it your breakfast. Lick up the remaining parts of your... food, I want it all gone before I come back. And say thank you to your master for providing you with such a fine meal." Marco said the last sentence while twisting his foot on his back, smirking.

" Thank you, Master." Hao said quietly, and he did in fact feel a little grateful. This would probably be the most he's eaten in... he really couldn't remember.

Marco took his foot off his back and, still smirking, walked to the bathroom to prepare Hao's 'breakfast'. Hao quickly got to work licking up the left over waste on the floor.

* * *

The rest of the day went fairly normal. Hao had finshed his breakfast and cleaned and made up anything in the mansion that was dirty or out of place. Marco would then give Hao a list of outside chores to do in the 5 acre garden, the list being its average 7 and a half pages long. He would have to finish it all by 1:30, or no dinner. He never got lunch.

Hao then followed Marco down to the Playroom, and then the 'fun' begins. Lyserg went down with them today, he normally does, but for some reason he didn't stay for even half the session. He had too much on his mind. Earlier that day he had sent a letter to an old friend of his, inviting him over. He hadn't seen him in a long time, not since the Shaman fight had been cutoff and he had rejoined the X-laws. That was at least a year ago, and neither had even called each other. Would he even consider coming?

Lyserg shook that doubt from his head as he trudged up out of the dungeon. Of course Yoh would come, they were friends, he wouldn't decide not to come just because they hadn't seen each other in a while, if he couldn't make it he would have a good excuse. _"I wonder how he will react to Slave being here though...he'll probably be a little worried at first, but once he sees how we've broken it, he'll forgive my lack of contact to him if he is in any way upset by it."_

Lyserg smirked to himself, They really had done a good job of braking Hao and punishing him for his crimes, they didn't even refer to him as Hao anymore, just Slave and sometimes it. They were all determined to make Hao on the lowest level possible, and make sure he knew he was. Yoh and the others would go from being upset he never visited to upset he never called them sooner and let them get in on the action of punishing Hao. Correction, The Slave. Lyserg chuckled.

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**Author's Note: *Sigh* That took way longer to finish then it should have, but I have way to many distractions as well as priorities. I might not update this that much but trust me I'll try, so don't be surprised if I update only every couple of weeks, im really trying my best here though. I might end up taking breaks in between and just right some oneshots, so expect that too. Man, I normally like writing much more than this but I really just wanted to put this up so you guys could tell me what you think. Oh well, biscuits for readers and reviewers! Arf arf!**


	2. Chapter 2: The Visit

**Author's Note: *Growls in annoyance* The very first comment to a story I was already worried about was a bit rude, and now that I think about it not very much appreciated. I was honestly so put down by that first review that I considered taking down this story and just making oneshots, but I wasn't planning on making this story 'cute' as some of my other stories have been described as and I came to my senses quickly enough to think wait, im going to take this story down because of one bad review, even if it was kinda uncalled for? I've never been flamed before, but if that was a flame let me tell you something: Flames burn. They can burn an author's confidence and fuel doubt. Don't play with fire people. Also, some of the things Hao goes through with the X-Laws are inspired by a story I read, called " A child called "it"". So yea, read that and tell me this story is disgusting, not that im saying that story was bad, just sad since it's a true story. And there will NOT be a lemon in this story. The genre isn't romance. By the way, when I said some of the stuff Hao goes through with the X-Laws are inspired by a story I read, it won't be completely the same, just where I got some of my ideas from. I liked the other comments though, so far from what ive seen from them this story is going pretty well, if there was something in my story those people think is wrong I trust them to tell me, not blab about something not even in the genre. **

**Disclamier: I don't own Shaman king, or "A child called "it"", or a puppy. Because the world is mean like that. I'm good with not owning "A child called "it'" though because the author is the kid in the story...**

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Yoh and his friends stood outside an enormous mansion surrounded by a lush meadow, probably double the size of the inn. It looked beautiful and sophisticated, from the shiny silver colored outer walls to the sparkly fountains that lined a white marble path to a steel door with elegant swirl designs. Yoh could only stare up at the 4 story building in awe, which most of his friends were doing as well, except Anna and Ren, Ren because he kept insisting his mansion was bigger, and Anna because she simply wanted to be indifferent and pretend she wasn't impressed.

None of them noticed the steel door open and someone walking out until a familiar voice rang out across the huge and gorgeous front yard.

"Hey guys! Glad you made it!"

Everyone looked toward the entrance of the building. Everyone started shouting and waving at Lyserg, but Ryu ran straight up to him and gave him a big hug, lifting him off the ground a little too."Lyserg, I thought I would never see you again! I'm so happy!" He cried, practically crushing Lyserg.

"It's...nice to see you, too, Ryu... but I can't breathe..." Lyserg managed to wheeze out. Ryu didn't seem to hear as since his grip on Lyserg tightened.

"Hey Ryu, if you're not careful you might end up squeezing the life out of him." Yoh chuckled as he walked up behind Ryu. That Ryu heard and he let Lyserg go, patting Lyserg's head as the smaller Shaman tried to catch his breath.

"This is quite the place you and the X-Laws have..." Yoh commented, looking up at the building once again in awe. Lyserg caught his breath and smiled at Yoh.

"Yeah, this place is pretty cool, come on in and I'll show you guys around." Everyone except Anna and Ren nodded eagerly and everyone followed Lyserg inside.

The living room in the building was very similar to a ballroom, except it had a slightly lower ceiling and had plush grey couches in corners and groups of chairs surrounding hand made coffee tables. An enormous wide screen TV was on the wall that had the entrance door, at least 4 feet on the left of it. The TV looked shiny and new, almost like it wasn't used much, but was still kept well clean and dusted. The floor was made up of shiny square light silver colored tiles,and the walls were a darker silver color than the floor. An enormous chandelier hanging in the middle of the ceiling casted a magnificent white light all around the room, and combined with the sunlight filtering in from a long but wide open window with grey billowing curtains, the room was positively sparkling.

Yoh closed his eyes to the light, trying not to look at the floor for fear all its sparkling would blind him. " This is the living room, we like to come here to discuss X-Law... things..." Lyserg said, sweatdropping as he realized how dumb that just sounded.

Yoh only nodded and attempted to make his way to chair he had saw in the room before he had to close his eyes. He bumped into the chair and had a little trouble finding the part you sit down in, but found it nonetheless. "Wow this place is spectacular, and so shiny I can barely see! And look at that TV" Yoh heard Horohoro say.

"I can't see at all..." Yoh muttered. No one heard him though, everyone had gone straight to the TV. Yoh opened his eyes slightly and saw his eyes had adjusted more to the light so now he could see better. He turned in the chair to see everyone but Lyserg sitting in front of the TV, fighting over what to watch. It was mainly just Horohoro and Ren fighting actually, and Ryu was trying to calm them down. Lyserg was walking up to him.

"Looks like our tour got cut short." Yoh said with a grin as Lyserg walked up and stood in front of him. Lyserg smirked. "Yeah well, I hadn't invited you here just for a tour or to catch up, there is something I want to show you."

Yoh blinked. "What is it?"

"Come, you'll see..."

Yoh nodded and stood up, following Lyserg down an elegant hall towards another room. Yoh suddenly stopped, making Lyserg turn and give him a questioning look. "What is it Yoh?"

"Er... where's the bathroom?"He asked sheepishly.

Lyserg pointed to a door they had just passed. "Thanks Lyserg, I'll be right back." Yoh said as he scampered to the door threw it open and slamed it shut. Lyserg sighed and continued on without him, deciding he would come back for him later. He wanted to see if the Slave was ready for Yoh, not that he really cared if he was or not.

* * *

Hao stood at the large silver sink, washing dishes. He was deep in thought, wondering about the visitor that he had heard Lyserg and Marco talking about earlier. He didn't know who it was, they hadn't said any names, but because of that person he had to do all his work over 3 times, Marco kept saying the place wasn't clean enough, and each time earned him an extra hour in the Playroom.

He absent mindedly pulled his hands out of the water, resting them on the sink. The X-Laws had never had visitors before, so who was this person? Why wasn't he told? Why did he just ask himself such a dumb question? Of course they didn't tell him, why would they? He was a slave, nothing more and everything less. He knew nothing beyond what he was told directly, if he did then he was being disobedient, and disobedience always leads to punishment, pain. He shuddered thinking of what they might do to him for knowing something before he was supposed to, the last time Marco found out he knew something before he was told he had locked him in the dungeon for a week without food or water. He had only found out he was supposed to clean the gutters with his shirt, the only one he was allowed to have. Marco had been furious he had done it before he had actually told him to.

Hao jerked as he heard footsteps coming closer to the kitchen and quickly put his hands back in the water, but Lyserg already saw him and smirked. In no time Lyserg had strode up to Hao and slammed his head against the kitchen counter. Hao could feel his teeth chipping, and they flowed out as white specks in the thin blood drizzling out his mouth.

"Slacking, Slave?" Lyserg hissed in his ear. Hao was too afraid to anwser, so Lyserg pulled him up by his hair and dunked his head into the dish water, holding him there. For a couple moments Hao was able to hold his breath, but Lyserg had slamed him so hard against the counter the side of his head was bleeding, and the pain was making it hard to concentrate on not opening his mouth. Eventually he couldn't take it anymore and tried to pull up, but Lyserg pushed his head down further. Now Hao began to thrash, he couldn't hold his breath anymore and he feared if he didn't come up soon he would drown, he could feel large amounts of the water going down his throat already.

Lyserg was enjoying himself a little too much and forgot himself as he remembered what Hao took from him, his parents. Lyserg would take his life then.

"Lyserg, if you don't let it come up it'll drown." Came Marco's voice from behind him. Lyserg looked back at him and with a sigh realesed Hao's head. Hao shot up out of the water coughing and sputtering, feeling like he would throw up all the dish water.

"Now get back to work Slave!" Lyserg said behind him. Hao nodded and picked the plate he had been washing before and began to scrub it quickly.

"That idiot was being lazy and doing nothing when I came in." Lyserg told Marco.

"Don't worry about it Lyserg, later on I'll make sure it gets a proper punishment." Marco said, looking at Hao with a smirk. Hao nervously reached for a cloth to dry the dish he had washed, arms trembling slightly. Marco saw it and let out a sudden bark of evil laughter, startling Hao and causing him to drop the plate. It hit the ground hard and shattered, and for a second it felt like the world had stopped and held its breath.

Hao barely had time to blink before he was thrown to the corner of the kitchen. "You fool!" Marco cried. "That was my favorite plate!' Hao's eyes widened as Marco pulled a cowhide whip he kept on his belt out and began to lift it in the air.

* * *

Yoh walked down the hall, looking for Lyserg. _" I shouldn't have had those burritos and beans this morning..." _He thought as he walked along. That was the last time he would let Horohoro convince him those two things together would be a good breakfast. He stopped. Was that...screaming he heard? He looked towards a large closed steel door all the way at the end of the hall, the one, he assumed, Lyserg must have been leading him to. He approached the door and put his ear on it in an attempt to hear better. The door was thick so it was hard to hear, but that was definitely screaming. He hesitated for a moment then knocked on the door.

"Hello? Lyserg you in here? Are you ok?" He asked, preparing to hack the door down with the Harusame on his belt if he got no answer. The screaming ceased and Yoh thought he heard whispers on the other side. The door opened slowly and Lyserg stuck his head out smiling. "Don't worry Yoh, I'm fine.'

Yoh frowned. "Then what was with all that screaming I heard?" Yoh asked. Lyserg opened the door more and gestured for Yoh to come inside. Yoh went in and nearly choked on the breath he sucked in. In the left corner of the room he just entered was a person who was covered in dark red, and standing over him was Marco holding a whip, covered in red too but Yoh could tell it wasn't his.

Yoh felt hot anger bubble up inside him and made to charge at Marco, but Lyserg grabbed his arm when he saw Yoh about to move. "Let go!" Yoh screamed, trying to tug out of Lyserg's hold.

"No Yoh, you don't understand, that thing on the ground is Hao." Lyserg explained.

Yoh froze. "Wha...What did you say?"

Lyserg smirked. "Slave!" He said suddenly. "Get over here and greet the guest!" Yoh watched in horror as the bloodied person stood slowly, wobbling a bit, and wiped at the blood on his face. Hao began to walk slowly toward where he had heard Lyserg's voice calling him, he still couldn't see with all the blood in his eyes. Hao was able to blink some out when he got there and looked up a little but just enough so he was looking in Yoh's eyes, though he hadn't meant to. Hao would have screamed if he wasn't already so tired, so he just decided it was his imagination and got on his hands and knees, his forehead touching the ground in front of Yoh.

Yoh only stared down at him, at the blood pooling around him, at the blood staining his clothes, Yoh only stood and stared and felt absolutely disgusted.

Lyserg laughed. "See Yoh? This is what I wanted to show you! After your battle with Hao we had found him still alive, but barely. We knew he was still alive for a reason, so we could make him pay for his crimes. So now he is working off his debt by being our slave, a debt he will never be able to pay off anyway! I invited you because I knew you would most appreciate seeing this monster on his knees, after all the things he put you through! And don't worry about him hurting anyone, our The Iron Maiden had created a spell, one that seals his powers, so now he knows what it's like to be at someone else's mercy!"

Yoh just continued to stare at Hao, who was now doubting Yoh had just been his imagination and trembling on the ground. Yoh noticed a unnaturally dark purple X shaped mark on Hao's ankle, and guessed that it was the spell keeping him from using his powers. Yoh didn't know what to think, what to do, and in that moment his normally calm self slipped so he just began to back away, back away slowly, then he turned and ran as far from that place as he could.

* * *

Yoh lay in a large bed with a white canopy and white sheets. The blanket was grey and thick, and if it wasn't for all the thoughts whirling in his head he would have been knocked out the moment he got in the bed it was so comfortable. But he couldn't enjoy it. He was at war with himself, not knowing what to do. He thought he had killed Hao, that that was the end of it and he wouldn't have to worry about him again. But now the X-Laws have Hao and they made him a slave. Did Hao deserve that? Yoh wanted to do the right thing, but he didn't know what was.

Yoh thought back to that moment Hao had looked in his eyes, how they had been filled with such pain and sadness, surprise, and, what baffled him the most, fear. So much unrestrained fear it made his heart clench remembering it. He had ran away because the fear and submission Hao showed confused him to a point where it was frightening.

Lyserg had thought it was just he was still not assured Hao couldn't hurt him and told him to go to bed early and try to relax, but it was already midnight and Yoh was still just as confused and frightened as he had been that afternoon, and all the blood he had saw only added to the fear he had. The thing Yoh had really feared in that moment Hao looked at him though was Hao's fear, of what he didn't know. The X-Laws? Hao definitely did seem to fear them, but he wasn't with the X-Laws, Hao knew that, right?

Yoh frowned and got out of bed. He knew what he had to do now. He dug around in his duffel bag he had brought with him and pulled out a key chain flashlight. He turned it on, walking out of the room and into the hallway. His feet felt tingly on the fuzzy carpeted floor as he walked, and he could see soft moonlight filtering in to the living room as he went through it. For a moment he stopped to look at the stars through the window and noted that they looked beautiful here without all the city lights blocking them out. Then he continued on.

Yoh turned a corner which he knew was a hallway that led to the kitchen, and gasped as he saw the clear blood trail that led from the kitchen to a rusty old door with a key hanging on the knob. He walked to the door and grabbed the key, then pushed it open, being careful not to close it behind him because he had a feeling it locked from the inside. He walked down the stairs and was disgusted to feel wetness under his feet, and he wished he had put on shoes. He continued down untill he saw the blood trail had stopped, in front of a cell. Yoh shined the flashlight into the cell, and gasped for the third time that day.

Hao sat there in the left corner, still wide awake. He was crudely wrapped in bandages and by the soft whimpers he was giving Yoh knew he was in pain. Hao looked up at him and his eyes flickered in fear, then he passed out. Yoh wasn't frightened by the fear this time, just greatly confused. He stared at Hao for a long moment in pity, then he pushed the key in the cell's key hole and opened it.

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**Author's Note: I'm sorry about my over reaction before, I am the kind of person who is easily effected by what others say. It's a good and a bad thing though. That guy had made me really upset and consider taking this down, but the other reviews weren't bad at all and encouraged me to keep going, so I wanted to update fast for those people. This is probably the quickest im going to be updating this story though. I made this chapter longer though, which I like. Again, I apologize for that other author's note, forgiveness pwease? *cute puppydog face* I hope you guys liked this. Tell me what you think, but don't be mean about it please. Biscuits for readers and reviewers! Arf arf! **


	3. Chapter 3: Unexpected Rescue

**Author's Note: Hi readers! New chapter for everybody! Hope you enjoy it! Arf arf! Oh and thank you to all reviewers and their advice, I'll try to use them. This is my answer to all those reviews so far: ****Hao will not die, I will never let myself do that. ****I am planning on making Lyserg a little bigger of a character in this story later on, but not now, and I'll get into detail of how everyone feels about things soon enough. I read over my first chapter and I see the muahahahaha part and doo doo did sound kinda silly, so I edited that. And it depends on how you look at a story that gives it a comedy feel or not, I'm currently reading a angst story in progress and so far a good part of it has made me laugh out loud, but that's probably because it's being written by someone who's awesomeness level is almost to awesome for comprehension. As for my spelling, hey, the story is still readable right? :P And my dialogue being stilted...I don't know what to do about that, but I can try to do better. Thank you all for the advice, I appreciate all of them and hope you can continue to give me some more so I can improve as a writer. Arf arf!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King, but I can dream can't I? **

* * *

Ren lay in bed, sleeping peacefully. He was dreaming he was fighting Yoh in a forest, and Yoh was losing; badly**.**

Yoh opened the door to Ren's room and peaked inside. He inhaled sharply and tiptoed up to him, then poked at his back. Ren stirred a little but did not wake up. Yoh shook him lightly. Ren mumbled incoherently. Yoh bit his lip and then shook him harder, a little too hard, but Yoh was nervous and he needed Ren awake first. Ren half yelped at the sudden rapid movement and scrambled out of bed, grabbing at his spear thingy ( I have no idea what it is called) beside his bed and held it out defensively. When he saw it was Yoh he let out a breath and glared at him.

"Yoh! What the hell?!" He whispered harshly. "Sorry Ren, but I need you awake to-" "I finally have a little peace since we got here, what with Horohoro's idiocy! And now you and your stupidity came and ruined it! What is it Yoh? What is it that you need to wake me up at-" Ren looked at the clock on the mahogany dresser next to his bed. " 2:27! Why are you of all people up at this time anyway?"

"I was trying to tell you that you need to call your sister and tell her our visit is being cut short, and we need to get back home now." Yoh said urgently.

Ren frowned. "What do you mean it's being cut short? We just got here!"

"I know, I know, but this is important, and I can't explain everything right now so you have to call your sister at the island and tell her not to leave yet, when your done im sure I would have gotten everyone else up by then and then I'll explain it to everyone, you'll understand then but now you need to hurry up and call your sister to wait for us."

Ren was still for a moment, searching Yoh's eyes, then he sighed and nodded his head. "Fine Yoh, but it had better be a good explanation."

Yoh smiled gratefully and nodded back at him. Ren grabbed his phone and started to dial his sister's number while Yoh left the room and woke everyone else up, giving them the same hurried promise of an explanation. Nobody liked getting up at 2 something in the morning to leave a place they just got to for an unknown reason, but everyone knew Yoh well enough to trust him when he was doing something that seemed crazy, so they went along with him.

Yoh led his friends outside, ignoring their grumblings and questions for the moment, and they all walked through the meadow to the lake that cut right through it. A boat rest on the lake's edge, a rather small one, so everyone's grumblings got louder as they stepped inside.

"Hey, what's this?" Chocolove asked, pointing to something wrapped in a blanket in the boat. "This wasn't here before."

Yoh took a deep breath. "Ok, that is the reason we need to leave now without the X-Laws knowing, but you guys need to promise not to freak out and keep going with me on this, ok?" Everyone looked at each other nervously, but slowly everyone nodded their heads.

"Ok, remember, don't freak out, don't try to kill him-" "Wait why would we try to kill him? And who is him? You have a body in there?" Ryu asked nervously.

Horohoro's eyes widened. "Yoh...did you kill someone?" Ren hit him over the head. "No you imbecile, if he had killed whoever is in there he wouldn't tell us not to kill him, how would that make sense?"

Horohoro rubbed his head. "Pointy headed jerk." He muttered.

"What did you say!?" Ren said, getting his spear ready.

"Guys, do you want me to explain this or not?" Yoh asked patiently. Everyone was quiet then.

Yoh took anther deep breath and pulled the blanket back slightly, revealing a frighteningly familiar face. Everyone gasped and immediately grabbed at their weapons, but stopped at the pleading look Yoh gave all of them.

"There had better be a _really _good explanation for this, Yoh." Ren hissed, still keeping his hand on his spear.

Yoh nodded. "Don't worry, there is, just hear me out..."

* * *

Yoh sat close to Hao on the boat, fearing for his brother's life. Everyone else on the boat were either shooting Hao death stares or giving Yoh 'I can't believe you could be so stupid' stares. Even Ryu, the one rowing the boat, had almost his full attention on Hao, his wooden sword on his knees. Thankfully for Yoh nobody tried anything, just kept their weapons close and their eyes on the slightly bloody bundle of blankets next to the brunette.

"Your so incredibly stupid for doing this, you know that?" Anna finally said quietly, breaking the eerie silence everyone had fallen into momentarily. Yoh gave her a small smile and nodded his head. "I'm sorry Anna, I wasn't planning on doing this but I couldn't-" The sound of a hand hitting cheek flesh resounded suddenly. They continued on in silence into the ocean, Yoh rubbing a hand on his right cheek. Nobody noticed they were being watched.

From far away, behind some bushes on shore, a little girl with a puffy afro of hair was crouching, staring off after the ones in the boat. "They have Hao-sama now..." She muttered to herself, narrowing her eyes slightly in deep thought. That's good, right? She knew she wouldn't have had a chance to get him away from the X-Laws, so she had just watched him carefully this entire time from far off and made each day Hao worked another reason to hate the X-Laws with all her heart and soul. How dare they do such things to her Hao-sama? Well now Yoh had done the hard part, getting Hao away from the X-Laws. The only thing she had to do now was rescue him from Yoh which she felt would be much easier, and she smiled to herself for her patience and planning, she never got to use any of the plans she thought up, but her patience opened up an even better opportunity.

She frowned as she realized that they would probably be heading back to Japan. How would she get there? She would find a way, nothing was going to stop her from saving Hao. And when she does, Hao would forgive her... She smiled again.

"Opacho save Hao-sama, Hao-sama forgive Opacho, become friends again..."

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**Author's Note: Sorry for the shortish chapter, and long wait, I had a lot of crud I had to do, and I could barely write a paragraph at a time. But I had said in the first chapter I would probably be updating every few weeks, another rather quick update to me. I hope this chapter doesn't seem rushed, but for some parts I kinda had to because I'm not getting much time on the computer anymore...but I hope you guys still enjoyed it! I'm looking forward to reviews, please tell me what you think and if you want give advice, I have a feeling I really need it, hehehe... so yeah, review please and tell me what you think! Arf arf! I'll try to make the next chapter better! Arf!**


	4. Chapter 4: Departure

**Author's Note: Hi everyone! Thank you all for the reviews and stuff, I really appreciate it! And I did not know there was such a big difference between 'id' and 'I'd'...but I guess you learn something new everyday, right? ;D I can't wait for more reviews, they make me happy! Please review and tell me what you think! Arf arf! And yeah Yoh's whole group of friends is with him except Manta and Tamao, the reasons will be explained later.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own shaman king, I didn't own it before and I don't own it now! :'( stop reminding me you meanies...**

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There was a small thump as the boat landed on the shore of the island. Everyone froze for a moment, the tension having made it hard for them to pay attention to anything other than Hao. When they realized they had made it to land they all cautiously got up. Yoh picked Hao up and frowned at how light he was, it was like lifting up a half filled bag of sand. He couldn't worry about that at the moment though, all that mattered right now was getting his brother as far away from this place as possible.

The group walked at a brisk pace toward a smallish but sharp looking jet plane, one of Ren's private ones. It was pure white, down to the seats under the cushions inside. This was Ren's favorite jet, and he had allowed it to be used only for this special occasion. Now as they approached the jet and he glanced once again at the bloody bundle in Yoh's hands he quickly felt disgust rising in his throat, thinking about the mess the blood from the longed haired shaman Yoh was carrying would make.

They stood at the side of the jet plane, waiting for the door step thing to lower. As it did Ren turned to Yoh. "He had better not get any blood on my plane..." He sneered coldly. Yoh pressed Hao tighter against him nervously, Ren's tone making him uncomfortable and even more worried for his brother's safety among his friends. Ren walked up the steps into the plane first, Yoh and the rest of them following behind him.

"Ren!" Jun said upon seeing her younger brother. "What's this? I didn't even get to leave yet, why are you going back so early?" Everyone looked at Yoh, making Jun look at him too and notice the bloody bundle of blankets in his arms. "Yoh...What is that?" She asked suspiciously.

"Don't worry about it, you'll find out soon enough." Yoh said, making Jun fold her arms and frown. Yoh gave her a small smile and walked on to the back of the plane, the very last seat to the right and sat down. Jun looked from Yoh to his friends with a questioning look, who only gave her nervous glances though they didn't say anything. Ren in particular was doing his level best not to look directly at her, knowing full well though he would never admit it how much power his older sister had over him and how she could get him to do anything. Jun sighed at his efforts as she turned and went back to the cockpit. Yoh said she would find out soon enough, so she was going to try and focus on flying the plane back to Japan for the time being. _"It's probably nothing too serious, maybe it just looks that way at first, I'm sure everything is fine...I hope..."_

Yoh's friends all trudged back into the passenger section of the jet. "Thanks guys for not telling Jun, I don't know if she would still be so willing to fly us back if she knew the reason why, just want to be on the safe side you know?" He laughed. Everyone gave him a look and stayed at least two seats or more ahead of Yoh, peaking over the tops of their seats every couple minutes to give a hostile glare at the bundle Yoh had placed in the window seat next to him.

"Yoh, what are you even going to do now that you have him?" Faust asked quietly, a little after they had taken off. Yoh looked at the doctor with a calm look on his face. "Take him to the inn of course."

Anna practically jumped out of her seat, standing on the cushions and ignoring Ren's protesting glare. "There is absolutely no way I'm going to have that insane definition of evil in my home!" She yelled angrily. Yoh looked at her and sighed. Convincing Anna would be hard. "Anna," Yoh began, "I know you would probably have a problem with Hao being with us, you all probably will, but I'm not leaving him where he could be hurt like he was, I will never be able to forgive myself if I let that happen, and before you say that this wasn't my fault you should know I don't care, nobody deserves to be bathed in their own blood like how I first saw him. Please Anna, one of the few things I ask of you is to be able to trust me, and I need you to trust me for this. The Iron Maiden had sealed his powers, I promise no one will get hurt while Hao is around, and that includes Hao himself."

Anna blinked, slightly caught off guard by Yoh's words, but she quickly regained her composure as quick as it half slipped. "Yoh, even if I did decide by some miracle of yours to let Hao go back to the inn with us, wouldn't that be the first place the X-Laws look?" She asked with irritation in her voice.

Yoh smiled slightly. "No, it most likely won't, you see Anna the first place a person would look when their looking for someone who's hiding is the last place they would expect, so the last place they would look is the most obvious place the person might be."

Almost everyone looked at Yoh with a half stunned expression. "That actually...kinda makes sense..." Horohoro murmured quietly. "You sound surprised." Ren said, his eyes surveying the rest of Yoh's friends and seeing they seemed surprised too. Anna grunted but slowly slid back down into her seat. Everyone else turned back around in their seats too. Only Ren gave Yoh a small smile before doing so.

Everyone lapsed into silence, each having a lot on their minds. Yoh moved Hao so that Hao was on his lap, then moved over so he could look out the window. He blinked. It looked like their was something behind them, in the water. For some reason it seemed like someone Manta's size on a raft or something...Yoh yawned, he was really tired, he was starting to see things.

He peeped his head over the seat in front of him, looking at his friends. He wasn't sure how safe his brother would be if he fell asleep and his friends were probably still awake. "Amidamaru..."

The samurai spirit materialized in front of him, having been silent for this whole time. He said nothing, only stared at his partner blankly. "I'm going to sleep but I want to be on the safe side, will you watch him?" Yoh said, gesturing to his brother. Amidamaru said nothing, and Yoh sighed. "Amidamaru, please, just make sure he stays safe while I sleep." With that Yoh smiled and leaned back quickly, falling asleep almost instantly as his head hit the soft white plane seat fabric.

Amidamaru's stony expression lightened a bit at Yoh's quickness to sleep, then it went hard again as he glanced at Hao. The blanket around him had drooped some by now, and his clothes were visible. Amidamaru raised his eyebrow slightly, this was definitely not Hao's normal wardrobe. Hao wore a dark blue medieval man peasant outfit, looking like it was made from old wool, it seemed worn and dirty. His feet were bare and were covered in a thin layer of dried mud and dust. His hair was the only thing that seemed the same about Hao's appearance, other than he looked like Yoh mostly face wise...no, that was different too, it was much longer now, probably at least up to his knees.

Amidamaru huffed and turned slightly, sensing the other spirits poofing up a little ways behind him. From the soft and loud snoring he could hear Amidamaru guessed the other shamans had fallen asleep too, leaving him to deal with their guardian ghosts. He could just feel the hostility radiating off them, fully directed at the one he had been asked to protect. regardless of who he was, he had...well not really agreed but he was going to carry out Yoh's wish anyway and watch over his twin.

Amidamaru turned fully to face the other spirits when Tokagero began to advance. "Stay where you are." Amidamaru said cooly."

"You aren't seriously going to protect him Amidamaru..." Tokagero stated more than asked. Amidamaru sighed. "Yoh asked me too, and even though I didn't verbally agree I will do what he has asked of me, he is my partner."

Kororo made an angry dull chirping sound, and Tokagero frowned. "He is evil, and if you didn't agree to something you shouldn't do it." He paused and looked back at Hao, narrowing his eyes. "Especially if it's something like keeping _him_, safe. If anything we will be keeping our shamans safe by destroying him right now..."

Amidamaru sighed once more. "Yes, you may be right about that, but as I had told you before Yoh is my partner. I trust him and his decisions, so I will not let him down and allow Hao to be harmed as long as that is Yoh's wish." Amidamaru turned himself away from Tokagero then and stared blankly at Hao, clearly dismissing the other spirits. Tokegaroh scowled and poofed away, Kororo soon doing the same with a small sound of irritation. Bason lingered for a moment, staring at Amidamaru intently. Then he himself dissappeared, and Amidamaru was left to his duty.

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**Author's Note: I hope you guys liked this! It took me a little more time to do than I thought it would, but ive done it anyway! Remember to review and tell me what you think, most of the time your opinion is my motivation , remember that readers! So yeah, biscuits to readers and reviewers! Arf Arf! **


	5. Chapter 5: Tense arrival in Japan

**Author's Note: ...Arf... I'm running out of stuff to put in the author's note, I don't know why but I'm just used to having them ... Random stuff I guess! Arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf arf meow arf ar-... O.o Da fudge was that!? **

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The jet landed in Japan a couple hours later, in Ren's private airport, one he had made especially for his favorite jet. The moment they landed he was in everyone's ear. "Get up, all of you get up this instant and get your unwashed bodies out my plane! I know none of you remembered to shower before we left, get up!" He was sucessful in getting people up until he came to Anna, who gave him a dirty slap in reply to his yelling and shoulder shaking.

"You have 5 seconds to back up away from me!" She screeched, making Ren regret waking her and making her grumpy. A grumpy Anna was a deadly Anna. He narrowed his eyes but moved away from the blonde girl, then went to Yoh. For a moment he just stood to gaze in confusion at Amidamaru who was giving him a solemn stare back, hovering over Hao.

Ren then shook Yoh's shoulder with a lot less force than he had for the others and only raised his voice a little in his ear, the reason why he wasn't sure. "Hey, come on get up. Yoh. YOH. Were back, wake up you lazy fool!" Yoh blinked his eyes open slowly, then gave Ren a lazy smile. "Good morning to you- GAH!" Ren didn't let him finish, yanking him out of the plane seat and onto the floor.

"Get him and get out." He said quietly, gesturing to Hao with narrowed eyes then jutting a thumb to the planes exit where Yoh's friends were starting to walk groggily out of. Yoh stood and picked the still unconscious Hao up, nodding his head. He didn't know what was up with Ren that he wasn't practically dragging him out of the plane like he was now doing with Horohoro, who had fallen asleep again and fallen back on a plane seat, or why he hadn't tried to tear off his ear with sound like he was currently and bravely trying to do with Anna, though he knew Ren would suffer dearly for it.

Yoh carefully trotted out of the plane, giving Jun a weak smile when she saw him carrying Hao and she slowly turned pale, putting a hand over her mouth. She said nothing though, now just staying a good 4 feet away from Yoh, or to be more specific Hao. Jun walked her brother and her friends over to a waiting limo, and watched them load into the car, then she began to walk slowly to the entrance of the mini airport, were she would call a limo for herself to drive her to the mansion.

She suddenly had an awful, fluttering feeling in her stomach as she began to try and make sense of what had happened, why Hao was bloody and Yoh had been carrying him, why they hadn't told her before the reason they needed to leave so early, why everyone seemed to know Hao was there but didn't do anything about it. They were helping Hao. She wasn't exactly sure were they found him, but she knew the X-Laws had something to do with this. She clenched her fists, her mind trying hard to come up with a story that would explain everything.

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Yoh looked out the limo window at the inn, he hadn't before but suddenly he missed this place deeply and wanted to get inside as fast as he could. He looked at Ren, who was staring at the floor of the vehicle blankly. No one had spoken the entire trip, not wanting to truly believe what they were doing, and they were doing the same as Ren, except they had scooted as far away as they possibly could without touching each other from the long haired not so much a shaman anymore who was in between Yoh and the window, head hanging down limply.

There was a long, long moment when no one did anything. The driver could cut the tension with a knife, no, a spoon, and he fidgeted uncomfortably. Um, I'm pretty sure this is your stop..." He said after a while. Everyone snapped their heads up to look at him, except Hao of course, and the chauffeur sweatdropped. "Then again I could be wrong..." He said quickly.

Ren shook his head. "No, your right." He paused for a moment then added, "Were just waiting for your useless self to open the door."

The chauffeur blinked and got out the limo quickly, racing around the long vehicle to the passenger door and pulling it open just as fast."Yes, of course, my bad I'm new." He said with a nervous smile, rubbing the back of his head and still sweatdropping.

Ren gave him a bored look and stepped out the limo. "Alright then, don't worry about it, I'll be sure to have you fired." He said in a nonchalant tone. The driver facepalmed.

Everyone stepped out of the limo after him, walking towards the large stone arch that was in front of the entrance to the inn. They all stopped there a moment to wait for, Yoh, who had to first pick up Hao again and then give assuring words to the chauffeur that he would in fact not be fired. When the man stopped crying dramatically and began getting there things slowly from the trunk Yoh made his way to his friends. "No place like home!" He said cheerfully, earning blank looks and eye rolls.

The group walked into the building, and Anna immediately went off to look for the girl she had made stay behind to slave away at cleaning the house. "Tamao! Come over here!" She yelled. The pinknette came running out of the kitchen, wiping a towel over her hands and looking nervous. "Y-yes Anna?" She stammered, looking nervous. Her eyes fell upon the person Yoh was holding, and she gapped, trembling uncontrollably. "Prepare a room for... _him,_ and make sure it's one far away from me." Anna commanded, and with that she stomped away to her room.

Everyone else gave Tamao sympathetic looks, and the trembling girl couldn't find a voice to ask why this man was here so she just stood completely still. Finally Ren sighed and began walking towards the stairs to go to his own room. "You had better get started, Tamao, before Anna comes back and gives you a better reason to shake like that." That did it, Tamao ran up the stairs past him and bounded far down the hallway, stopping at a door that was second to last and opening it, then nervously stepping inside. Everyone else began to go to their own place in the house, and Yoh was left alone standing in the middle of the livingroom.

He glanced down at his brother's face. Why...had he done that? Yoh frowned. His pity was disappearing fast. Why had he rescued Hao?...Out of that pity he now didn't have. He glared at Hao in disgust for a moment, then he walked slowly up the stairs to see how Tamao was doing on the room for his br-... Hao.

For Hao.

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**Puppy's Post it:** This is what I will call the shorter Author's Notes... Hehe, hurrah for alliteration! ;P Read and review please, and yous gets biscuits! Arf arf!


	6. Chapter 6: Tamao

**Puppy's Post it: Hope you enjoy! Arf arf!**

**Disclaimer: -_-" I forgot to put this in the last chapter, but Justa Little Puppy is feeling Justa Little Lazy, (name pun XD ) so I'm not going back... YOU CAN'T MAKE ME! AWAAAARG! *jumps out window but pops head back in covered in glass* I don't own Shaman King! This is for both chapters! ;D**

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The X-Laws were angry. Very angry.

Lyserg had woken up early that morning, at around 5:15 to make a big breakfast with Marco's help. He had told Marco not to wake Hao up as early as they normally did. He didn't want a situation where Yoh or someone might be up to use the bathroom and they happened to walk in on the sight of... something not too welcoming.

The two had finished at around 6, and they waited until 9:30 to wake everyone up. First they went to Ren's room. He wasn't there. At the assumption he was in the bathroom or something they moved on to Faust's room. Nothing. Horohoro's room? Empty. Anna's room? Lyserg made sure he and Marco carefully avoided going inside and making too much noise, both peeping in a crack in the door. They saw nothing. The other's rooms? Nobody. They checked Yoh's room last, and as they had seen for all the other rooms, no one was inside.

"Where are they?" Marco asked as he shut the door of Yoh's room with a frown.

"I don't know." Lyserg replied, folding his arms. "Why are you asking me, I was looking for them with you..."

Marco gave him a 'don't start with me' look which quickly shut Lyserg up. "Go and get the other X-Laws, tell them to check outside in the garden." He told Lyserg, who nodded and rushed to another part of the house where they were. Marco huffed, mind working, and he thought of all the possible places Yoh and the others could be, and why they were gone. Something came to mind of which he had not thought of before, but now that he had it seemed very likely.

Quickly he hurried over to the rusty old door, his suspicions increasing as he saw the key to the door was gone. He pulled a spare one out of his pocket and opened the door, then he rushed down the stairs. It was dark and the steps were still wet, so he ended up slipping on the third step and bumping down the rest of the way on his rear. After plenty of choice curses he stood and rubbed his sore behind, then staggered to the cell. In the dark he could hardly see a thing, and he mentally slapped himself for not bringing a flashlight.

He opened the cell door with the spare key and walked inside. "SLAVE!" He called in a big, powerful voice. A voice he knew Hao would know to answer right away, at all times. When there was not even a sound, except for the resounding ring of the voice, he knew what had happened. Marco turned and flew out the cell and up the stairs, towards the living room where Lyserg was explaining to the other X-Laws, who were all standing in a row by the door, what they needed to do and why.

"LYSERG!" Marco bellowed as he got to him, grabbing the green haired boy's collar. "YOUR FRIENDS TOOK THE SLAVE! HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN!?"

Lyserg stared at him surprise. "Wh-what are you-"

"I KNEW THIS WAS A BAD IDEA! I KNEW YOH WOULD DO SOME CRAP LIKE THIS! HE'S TOO FOOLISH, HE'S TOO... TOO... STUPID! AND SO ARE YOU! YOU FOOL! THIS IS YOUR FAULT, FOR INVITING YOUR STUPID FRIENDS!" Marco yelled, cutting him off and hitting him on the back of his head hard.

Lyserg flinched. "H-how could I have known that something like tha-"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU KNEW, HOW ARE YOU GOING TO FIX THIS?!"

Lyserg flinched again. "We could just search for them, it shouldn't be too hard..."

Marco growled and sighed, running his fingers through his short blonde hair. "Fine, _we _will search for them, but I'm only going to allow you assistance because I know your foolish self will just make more trouble on your own." Lyserg nodded and turned to the rest of the X-Laws. "Ok, so instea-"

"No, your not going to drag the others into this." Marco cut off yet again. "It is partly my fault this happened for allowing you to invite them, so it must be me and me alone who helps..."

Lyserg resisted the urge to groan. "Now then, if I were one of those slave-following fools, where would I hide...?" Marco wondered aloud.

"Maybe-"

"Shut up Lyserg I'm trying to think."

"..."

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The sunlight from the window streamed in, landing upon the face of the sleeping boy in the small bedroom. For a moment there was no sound, and the sunlight seemed content to stay where it was. Then the boy's eyes shot open. The scream clung in his throat like it was afraid, he certainly was and glad it didn't dare try and escape. His eyes darted around the room, one he was not at all familiar with, and he was so frozen by fear he couldn't move.

He gripped the sheets of the futon (Is that what it's called? Cuz I was at walmart one time and I saw a futon, It was some sort of couch, and I was like O.O "Thought they slept on those floor beds things...) nervously, swallowing thickly and debating to cough. His throat felt dry and he wasn't sure he could hold in the hack for much longer. It was uncomfortable, but he very quickly decided coughing would be a bad idea. He didn't want to make noise and let Marco or someone know he was awake, it had been a very long time since he woke to the sound of birds and the feel of sunlight.

His eyes widened as he suddenly remembered seeing Yoh, looking right into his eyes even. But that couldn't have been real, right? Everything had been a blur through the red. He also remembered seeing Yoh another time, when he had been his cell. Yoh had been staring at him, though Hao could see much clearer then, and he flinched at the thought that it might have actually happened.

He bit his lip and closed his eyes, trying to stop his mind from wandering into things like that, that would make him want to get up and run. He had no energy for such a thing he soon realized, tired as he was, but the fact he wanted to and he couldn't made him feel even more frightened.

When he reopened his eyes a pair of bare feet were in front of him. He stopped breathing all together, and his eyes were as big as saucers. A smiling, friendly looking face soon came into his view. "Yo. Good morning, Hao."

A blood curdling scream resounded throughout the house, startling all of its inhabitants into wakefulness. Yoh ran out the room, closing the door quickly behind him but trying not to slam it. Yoh looked back at the door nervously, confused. Of all of the possible reactions he would expect from the sealed pyro shaman, he certainly didn't have scream on his list.

The screech went on for a little longer, even though Yoh had already left, and it ended in a sort of strangled sob. Yoh stood outside the room for a moment, not sure if he should try to enter, but he couldn't help but feel worried, more surprised though, and he reached out a hand towards the doorknob.

Another hand shot out behind him and grabbed his hand before it could get there. He turned his head to see Anna, an agitated expression on her face, and Tamao, Chocolove, Horohoro, Pirika, Faust, Ren and Ryu standing behind him. "Don't Yoh, leave the fool be. He's obviously more off his nut then usual." With that the ice queen turned on her heel and walked quickly back to her bedroom. "Make breakfast." She said as he entered her room and slammed the door, not looking back.

* * *

The day went on slowly. Hao did not leave the room, and not a sound could be heard from it. At times Yoh would go up to his room with a plate of food, but as he opens the door a crack he is always unnerved by the small frightened whimper emitted from the boy inside. He just leaves with the meal and tries again some other time.

It was now evening, and the day had been going relatively smoothly except for what had happened that morning and the times Yoh would try to bring a meal to Hao. The only other thing that made the day off was the ever present tension, and everyone would often sit in silence until Anna put them to work.

Anna, though, wasn't making anyone do anything at the moment, which was rare, and she paced back and forth in front of the other occupants of the inn who were sitting in the living room. Earlier that day Anna had been making people work like crazy, but they were all sitting in front of her doing nothing and she didn't even glance at them. That made them even more uncomfortable then they already were, and the watched her nervously.

Suddenly Anna stopped and turned her head to look at them with a blank look. Tamao actually jumped at her abrupt stop and look, and Anna's general gaze at them shifted to just her. She gulped.

"Tamao, go up to Hao and tell him he can't stay in that room forever. He had better come out by tomorrow, or I will personally drag him out myself." She told the younger girl.

"G-go up? T-t-to h-him? A-and t-t-tell H-him wha-what?!" Tamao squeaked/stuttered.

"Did I stutter?" Anna asked coldly. "I know you did. Go. Now."

Tamao didn't bother to argue anymore, she couldn't, she had no idea how she had been able to speak out before in the first place. Anna and Hao were both people she feared greatly, and since at the moment Hao couldn't hurt her, as Yoh had told her the night before when she finished his room, she decided what Anna was asking, or more demanding of her to do wasn't complete suicide.

Tamao stood up, trembling like mad, and shuffled to the stairs. She looked them up and down when she got to them then looked back at Anna, who folded her arms over her chest and glared while the others tried to give her reassuring looks, except Ren who just gave her a look as blank as Anna's earlier one and made a gesture for her to go on.

She looked especially at Yoh though, he had been trying to bring food to Hao earlier so she hoped he wouldn't mind telling him what Anna wanted him to do. Yoh however made no move to take her place. He really hadn't wanted to take that food to Hao in the first place. But he had made Hao his responsibility the moment he saved him. It wouldn't feel right if he didn't take care of him afterward.

Tamao turned away and quickly ran up the stairs, Anna's look scaring her, and she skidded to a stop at the top of the steps. She just stood for a moment, looking down the hallway nervously. Ponchi and Conchi appeared next to her.

"Hey, don't worry!" Ponchi said, grinning at her cockily though he was shaking all over. "We'll protect ya if Hao tries anything funny!"

"Yeah!" Said Conchi, grinning just as cockily with his hands on his hips and his body trembling. "We'll take him down before he can even get within 5 feet of ya!"

Tamao looked from her fox spirit to her tanuki spirit, a shaky but grateful little smile on her face. "Th-thank you, you two..." She said quietly, before taking a deep breath and walking down the hallway slowly. The hall seemed to get longer and longer with every step she took, and as she got closer to the second to last door her body trembled more and more. She looked around her. "C-conchi? P-p-ponchi...?"

"Were right behind ya!" Ponchi called, he and Conchi at the beginning of the hall far behind her. "Were right here!"

"Keep going, your doing great!" Conchi said. They had both stopped shaking and had rather happy grins on their faces now. Tamao looked about to stutter protest to them, but then Anna's voice from downstairs striked her with even more fear.

"Tamao! Are you done yet?"

Tamao gulped and said nothing, shaking in place. "She's almost done Anna!" Ponchi called down to the impatient blonde.

"Well tell her to hurry up!" Ponchi looked at Tamao, but pretended not to see her pleading scared out of her wits look, giving her a thumbs up. Tamao whimpered and turned back around, towards the end of the hall. Her legs shook and she didn't know if she could walk anymore. She wished she couldn't. But surprisingly when she took a step forward she could support herself, and there were just a couple more very slow, very unsteady steps to take before she reached the second to last door.

When she finally made it she wanted, so bad, to turn and run and hide somewhere where she wouldn't have to be anywhere near that door. But of course if she turned back now she would get into trouble with Anna. That scared her enough to reach a shaky hand to the doorknob and somehow turn it, pushing it open ever so slightly.

The small sound that came soon after that sounded so much like her own at times that she stopped shaking for half a second, blinking in surprise. Then she moved her head so she could see into the room from the small crack she had pushed the door open. Hao was cowering in the far corner of the room, staring back at her from behind a small dresser. They were like that for some time, staring at each other and both scared and shaking. Until, Tamao noticed, Hao seemed to relax ever so slightly. His eyes became a little less wide, and the fear in them had diminished to a little over extreme wariness.

Tamao took a quick shaky breath. The sooner she got this over with, the better. The staring was starting to make her uncomfortable. Well, more uncomfortable than she already was. "A-...Anna said that, y-you should..." She paused. "Said that you should leave this room by tomorrow because she doesn't want you to be in here all day!" She said very quickly and quietly, squeezing her eyes shut and waiting a bit like she expected a punch in the face. When she carefully reopened her eyes she saw he had pushed himself a little farther behind the dresser. Like he had been frightened.

Most of Hao's head was still visible though, and he nodded slightly, an almost unnoticeable one. "I-it was... something like that...' She added quietly. Hao nodded again.

"TAMAO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Tamao jumped and yelped in surprise, and Hao was gone in less than a split second completely behind the dresser. The pink haired girl frowned at the dresser and quickly closed the door, then she turned and flew down the hall, down the stairs. She hadn't even realized she had been holding her breath until now, so when she made it back to Anna she was breathing hard, finally releasing the breath.

Anna frowned. "You still need to make dinner, don't waste time on such a simple task."

"So...sor...s-sorry, A-anna..." She bowed.

* * *

Yoh lay in bed, cocooning himself in his blankets. He closed his eyes.

"Yoh-dono, may I ask you something?"

Yoh reopened his eyes to look up at his guardian ghost. "Yeah, what is it Amidamauru?"

Amidamaru frowned slightly, unsure of how to word his question. "What do you plan to do with him?" He asked finally after a couple moments. Yoh didn't have to ask who he meant. "Hide him from the X-Laws, not much else I can do."

"Yes but how?" Amidamaru asked, his frown deepening a bit. "The X-Laws are resourceful, and are not easy to avoid, and they could even be on their way right now, and-"

"Amidamaru, relax, I'll find a way." Yoh inturrupted softly, a lazy smile on his face. "Don't worry so much, just trust me ok?"

"I do trust you Yoh, I do, but still..." Amidamaru sighed. "They are not just gonna let us have him, they will come after us, I just think this is not the best place to be, and we don't have the best person to be with..."

"Exactly."

Amidamaru looked at Yoh strangely. "Exactly? What do you mean?"

Yoh opened his mouth to explain, but instead of words a huge yawn came out his mouth. He glanced at his clock. "11:34! Sorry Amidamaru but I gotta get some sleep, training tomorrow..." With that he lay his head on his pillow and was out.

Amidamaru frowned even more. Yoh didn't seem to be hiding something, but he wanted to know what he had had to say. He would ask tomorrow.

After a moment of staring at his partner, he began to float away, towards the second to last room. He cautiously stuck his head inside and saw Hao had cocooned himself in the covers as well, twitching and shivering in his sleep despite the warm covers.

Amidamaru floated in to a far corner of the room behind him and stayed there, watching Hao solemnly. Yoh had not asked him to watch over Hao at night. Amidamaru decided Yoh hadn't needed to ask. He decided Yoh probably wanted him to but forgot to ask. He felt Yoh cared for Hao and wanted to make sure he was kept safe.

He knew Yoh would appreciate this.

* * *

**Puppy's Post It: This took a bit longer than expected, but... meh, biscuits for readers and reviewers, arf arf! **


	7. Cant think of a name, so, Pina colada?

**Puppy's Post It: Arf! Soooo, Hi. ...Don't shoot me! *hides***

**Disclaimer: *still hiding***

* * *

The next morning Hao woke up quickly but did not move, remembering immediately where he was and too held by fear to. It was early in the morning, around 6 am, and the only sound he heard in the house was Anna and Yoh's voice. Anna was, without a doubt, forcing Yoh outside this very moment to train, and Yoh was complaining about it being too cold or something. There was a smacking sound soon following his complaints, and then he could hear Yoh's voice no more. He was kind of glad about that. Yoh's voice alone was enough to unnerve him greatly.

Listening to Anna's barking, he remembered what she had told Tamao to tell him. As much as he would have prefered staying in the bed still as stone, he reluctantly sat up. He did not wish for her to have to come in and get him. He stood slowly, shakily, and shuffled to the door. He stood right in front of it, twitching every few seconds nervously.

"Are you going out?" A toneless voice asked.

Hao yelped, twirling and more or less slamming his back against the door, breathing heavily. His eyes darted all over the place, looking for whoever had spoken, the speaker though having quickly floated up to the ceiling in surprise by the yelp.

Hao, him seeing no one, slowly let his hand slide up the door, looking for the doorknob. When he found it he fumbled with it for a couple seconds, never turning his back on the room, then managed to turn it and then burst out the door.

This time he turned, but unfortunately for him he ran right into Anna. The itako seemed to have been about to get him, with every intention of chewing him out too with the look on her face. Hao took a step back and lowered his head as she spat at him to watch where he was going. He didn't say a word or try to run, letting Anna scream and yell at him until her cheeks turned red. She also screeched a long list of chores, insults, and some more chores and insults if she could think of any.

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?" She finally finished after a good maybe 15 minutes, hands on her hips.

"Yes, Anna-sama."

That made Anna blink and frown. "What did you say?" She hissed.

"Yes, Anna-sama." Hao repeated slowly, his voice quivering a bit. She seemed angry about something and he didn't know what.

In a blink of an eye Anna's open palm connected with Hao's face and made the same smacking sound he had heard that morning. His face was turned to the left, and he trembled slightly placing a hand to his bruising cheek.

"Don't add a prefix to my name, don't act like you actually respect to me!" She barked furiously, glaring at him.

"W-would you prefer that I called you Lady Anna?" Hao said in a small voice, lowering his head more but moving so he was facing her.

Anna's eye twitched.

SMACK!

"M-master Anna?"

SMACK!

"...Lord Anna?"

SMACK!

Hao was quiet then. He had spoken when not spoken to, twice, and he was too foolish to know what to call Anna. In his mind those were his justifications for her, and he waited for the rest of his punishment as he was sure there was more.

"... Get to work." Was all Anna said nonchalantly after staring at him for a while. She turned and walked away like nothing had happened, leaving Hao blinking after her in confusion before scampering off down the stairs to complete the tasks he had been given.

* * *

The long haired ex-shaman was on his hands and knees, scrubbing the kitchen floor. He was actually glad to be doing so. This was what he felt he did best, work, and it was a familiar motion he was comfortable to get back into. So far the ever present tenseness he felt hadn't relaxed, that is until now. Doing what he was meant to. It eased his mind.

Hao almost didn't notice the jaguar spirit in the kitchen door, and his tension returned to hit him hard. He stopped what he was doing and stood up, flinching at the low but quiet growl and bowed.

"Jaguar-sama, good morning, is there something I can get you?" Hao mentally kicked himself. He didn't remember the spirit's name, and he assumed he would get in trouble for it. He was... Chocolove's guardian ghost, right? Hao wasn't sure on that either, but hoped he wouldn't find out.

Mic blinked, his growl becoming a confused whine. Sama? The jaguar had silently hated the thought of having Hao here, but had not given anyone any trouble for it. Instead, he had planned to later try and roughen him up or something so he knew he wasn't to mess with anyone. Or maybe just give him a piece of his mind with the hope he doesn't suddenly learn how to speak jaguar. This was still THE Hao Asakura he was addressing, the chance of him getting killed (even though he was already dead), though worlds from likely in reality was still strong in his mind, powers sealed or not.

For a moment they just stared at each other, one so confused his fear and anger was forgotten temporarily, one so nervous that his anxiety and tension flooded back to him like a broken dam. Then the large spirit cat decided this was getting uncomfortable and with what he hoped was an intimidating growl trotted off.

As he left though, he did not fail to catch Hao bowing slightly to his retreating form from the corner of his eyes, then him getting back to work. As he padded away he wondered why Hao was doing work period. It was... weird, if anything, seeing the once powerful pyro on his hands and knees scrubbing kitchen floors.

He looked up when he heard people walking around sluggishly above, indicating Ryu and Tamao had probably gotten up and were about to head down to make breakfast (it would be the second breakfast of the day, Anna made Yoh make her breakfast when she woke him up). Mic listened to them move around upstairs a while, probably going to the bathroom up there, before he prowled off to go and maybe watch the antics of the weird ghost man who almost always wound up in the toilet. Cuz he had no life. Literally. (;3 couldn't resist)

* * *

It was an awkward breakfast, no doubt about that. Anna, who had already eaten earlier that morning, could feel the tension rolling out of the dining room, so she turned up the volume on the television a little in an attempt to block out the thick hostile silence coming from it. Meals were normally never this quiet.

The only sound she heard was the tink of a chopstick against a plate. All the people in there were either trying to ignore the rigid boy who sat cross-legged a seat away from everyone, this was mainly Tamao, or glared at him with all the hostility and hate they could muster. Actually that only happened out the corner of their eyes when the boy wasn't looking, but it happened nonetheless.

Hao just sat there, hands folded in his lap as he looked down at it, twitching a bit. He didn't like this. He wasn't used to eating at a table, much less eating stuff like _this_. In front of him was a large plate of eggs and rice, the eggs freshly boiled and the rice freshly cooked. Mentally he shook his head.

_"This... isn't right..."_

What he wanted to do, what he was _supposed _to do was get up, make sure everyone else had enough to eat, clean up after them, follow routine then wait for the unwanted scraps to be given to him. He didn't feel right if food like this was placed down in front of him, food for people like them, not him. He couldn't eat this. He wouldn't. It probably wasn't even for-

"Why aren't you eating?"

It was Ren's voice, said harshly but with an almost unnoticeable hint of curiosity. Ren had been watching him and not so much glaring secretly the entire time, and all Hao had done since Anna had told him to go eat was stare at his lap stiffly, head down.

Hao's head rose a bit so he was looking in Ren's direction, never making eye contact.

"I wasn't sure when I was supposed to start, Ren-sama." Hao said quietly instead of voicing his worry that it wasn't for him.

Horohoro had been in the middle of shoveling a large amount of rice in his mouth when Hao said this, just because he was eating quietly didn't mean manners were involved. Anyway, upon hearing it he almost choked on his food, coughing some out and beating his chest a bit before he managed to swallow and join the rest of the tables occupants who had ceased eating and were now staring incredulously at the boy/old as dirt geezer.

Hao shrunk back even more at their stares, looking back at his now more than ever incredibly interesting lap.

There were soooo many things wrong with Hao's one simple sentence, Ren didn't even know where to start. His eyes narrowed slowly at Hao, eyebrow raised.

"_Sama_?" He decided to start with, some of the harshness drawn back by confusion. The spirit Jaguar who sat protectively next to Chocolove frowned a bit, remembering his earlier encounter with Hao. He had been addressed with Sama too, though he had almost forgotten, and his mind wandered back to that time. He had no idea why, so he glanced at Hao intently.

Said sealed shaman twitched uncomfortably, not sure how to reply. Last time someone was upset at him for adding a prefix to there name and he tried to fix it he got slapped like 4 times. He had no desire to have that repeated.

"Would you..." He paused and braced himself. "Prefer I called you... something else?" He said hesitantly. Maybe let Ren make the suggestions instead? Everyone's eyes narrowed suspiciously at that point, then they glanced at Ren. The chinese shaman was still looking at Hao, studying him and wondering what he meant. Finally he decided that he didn't even want to know at the moment, and so he promptly turned away and continued eating. A couple seconds later everyone followed his lead slowly, even Horohoro, but his manners were still nonexistent and so each slow bite was still a huge mouthful.

Hao frowned. Ren hadn't answered. A lack of answer could mean anything. He could be angry. He could not care. He could be distracted. He could not have heard. He could be _angry. _He could be angry, and normally when Marco got angry there was pain, lots of it, and Hao felt the same thing would apply here. The silence thickened, and everyone was lost in there own thoughts, glancing occasionally still in apprehensive confusion at the long haired boy who was once again finding his lap oh so interesting. He didn't touch his food. He wouldn't dare.

* * *

"Hello, sweetie. Do you know where Mommy and Daddy are? You lost?"

The flight attendant at the airplane counter (whatever you call it where you stop just before you get on the plane) asked the small puffy haired child. The child sneezed, the cold night air from earlier on the raft having not been too good to her.

"Opacho isn't lost. Opacho is going to go and see..." She paused, smiling slightly. "Daddy."

"Oh, alright, Opacho. And who are you going with? Is Mommy taking you?"

Opacho frowned slightly. Did she have to go with someone? "...Opacho isn't going with anyone, Opacho is going all by Opacho's self." Hao-sama liked to be truthful, or at least give half truths, so she decided to say what should be said.

The flight attendant frowned. This kid, who looked to be barely a toddler, was going to board the plane by herself? That didn't seem right. Maybe her mother had been careless and gotten on the plane without her on 'accident', leaving this child's young mind to assume she was supposed to take matters into her own hands. It wasn't unlikely, she had heard of quite a few stories from veteran attendants about kids getting abandoned at this paticular airport. People for some reason assume that an airport in what could be fairly described as the middle of nowhere was a great place to dump a baby. (Let's not go into detail on surroundings, please, its somewhere in america ok? I don't feel like mentioning a specific place at the moment -3-)

"Hm, well, how about this: You give me your ticket, I'll take you on the plane and maybe Mommy will be there. I'm sure she doesn't want you to be going all by your self, don't worry." She decided it was probably that scenario.

Opacho was about to correct her, but when she opened her mouth she froze. Ticket? Uh oh.

"Um, Opacho will be right back!" She said quickly before scampering off, the flight attendant wondering if she should go after her. She decided against it in favor of standing and loading up a mental gun of profanity she was going to shoot off at the little girl's mother.

Opacho came up to a large, pot-bellied man who was sleeping on a bench, a green duffel bag on the floor and a slightly open yellow book bag by his side. He had fallen asleep, and had missed the announcement for the plane to Tokyo which was about to leave.

Poking his knee lightly, Opacho spoke. "Mister, do you know where Opacho can get a ticket for the Tokouo (Opacho is having trouble pronouncing it) plane?"

The man stirred a bit but didn't wake, instead accidentally pushing his book bag to the floor. Out fluttered a ticket for Tokyo.

Opacho looked at it, then back at the guy. "Mister, can Opacho use your ticket if Mister isn't using it?" She asked, poking his knee again. The man shifted and mumbled something about pork fried rice under his breath, the shifting causing him to lean to one side of the wall his back was against. His head bobbed a bit as he did so.

Opacho stared a little longer. Hm. That looked like a nod to her. "Ok, Thank you!" She picked it up and began to skip away, before looking back at him. She blinked, before walking up to his bag and rummaging inside until she found a little notepad and a pencil. Quickly scribbling something, she tore the page out and put it inside along with the rest of the paper and pencil. Then she turned and skipped off again.

"Here!" She chirped as she held the ticket out to the lady. "Opacho has a ticket!"

The flight attendant smiled at her and took the ticket, before taking Opacho's hand and leading her inside. "Tell me when you see her." The flight attendante told her with a smile. Opacho looked up at her, confused as to what she meant. "Who?"

"Your moth-" She didn't get to finish her explanation when Opacho suddenly spotted an empty chair beside a random sleeping woman and with a grin quickly pulled away and hopped into the seat, eager to hurry up and get to her Hao-sama. "Thank you!" She chirped to the lady who had brought her, now not much caring about who she had wanted her to look out for.

The attendant assumed at that point the lady Opacho was sitting next to was her mother, and smiled gently down at Opacho. "Cover your ears, darling." She said sweetly, to which Opacho obeyed with a questioning look. The lady sucked in a breath, then started firing the curses gun, riddling the now awake and alarmed woman with emotional holes. Basically the F bomb was dropped in almost every sentence, and every sentence was an insult so hurtful it would bring grown men to there knees in tears. By the time she was done the poor woman could do nothing but stare in shock, mouth opening and closing like a fish as she tried to get words out.

"SAY SOMETHING! I F*CKING DARE YOU! SAY SOMETHING! WHAT, YOU GOT NOTHING!? DAMN RIGHT YOU GOT NOTHING, BYATCH!" She finished. That was the exact way she said it too, which just made the woman shrink back more and keep up her awesome impression of a fish. With a huff the flight attendant sent her one last glare before stomping away, muttering about being unable to stand people who abandoned sweet little children.

Covering her ears had done nothing for Opacho, so when she removed them she blinked and looked at the woman still gaping like a goldfish a sympathetic look. Though she herself wasn't entirely sure why the seemingly nice flight lady had gotten so pissed at her.

_One hour later_

The pot-bellied man woke up slowly, still being able to practically taste the pork fried rice he was dreaming off. Maybe they had some in Japan? Most likely. He could really go for some of the real stuff right now though...

"LAST CALL FOR PASSENGERS FOR FLIGHT 23 TO JAPAN, TOKOYO."

He heard the loudspeaker say, and he quickly scrambled to his feet. Crud monkeys, his little nap nearly made him miss his flight! He hurried to the counter where the flight attendant was standing, gentle smile on her face betraying the still raging anger she felt from over 60 minutes ago.

"Ticket, please." She asked.

The man nodded, huffing slightly from his jog over there and began to rummage around in his bag. He knew he had it somewhere... Ah ha! He could feel a small piece of paper, though it didn't feel like the ticket, in his grasp. Meh, maybe it just felt different because he had had it in his bag most of the time and didn't really touch it. Pulling the paper out, he read it and his eyes resembled the size of the plates he eats pork fried rice from. That was pretty big.

Opacho owe Mister a Tokouo ticket.

The flight attendant merely raised an eyebrow at the man's quickly paling face as the bag slipped from his hands, the frantic search he would soon begin inside it quickly becoming in vain before it started.

Who was this Opacho?

Did they take his ticket?

What the hell was Tokouo?

* * *

The first thing Yoh noticed when he came back was the way the house was positively glowing with cleanliness. The second thing he noticed was Hao, who was solemly painting a very unnerved but somehow flattered, in a way, Pilica's toenails on the floor. The third thing was the way Horohoro stood off to one side, studying Hao with a weird expression born from confusion, curiosity and a splash of disgust. The fourth thing he noticed was the hard slap in the face.

"What are you doing back already?! I told you for the rest of this week your training starts at 6 and ends at 7:30!"

"Um..." Yoh checked the watch he had taken with him. 7:29. Crap. "Oh, sorry Anna, it was 7:03 when I decided to start heading back, and I thought I could train on the way home and get back on time, ya know?" He laughed a bit, rubbing the back of his head. The evil blonde was not amused, however.

"Well that plan failed, didn't it? Whatever, get inside, and be ready for the rest of your week long training punishment that will start at 5 and end at 8:30." She said nonchalantly, walking away to leave a wide eyed gapping brunette behind her. After he quickly got over the shock and the waterfall of tears started he looked up a bit to Horohoro clapping him on the shoulder sort of comfortingly.

"Tough luck dude." The blue haired shaman told him with a chuckle, making Yoh sigh, before blinking and looking over Horohoro's shoulder. "What's... going on?" He didn't need to explain what he meant, Horohoro had been asking himself the same question for a while now.

"Hey Yoh." Pilica mumbled awkwardly, half waving to him. Hao bit his lip and breathed out a rushed 'Good evening Yoh-sama' before turning away and going back to working on Pilica's feet tensely. His day had been going well, kinda, he got to work, he wasn't hurt (coughmuchcoughcough), and he was allowed to go where ever he wanted in the inn. He didn't know what he did to deserve such privileges, but he tolerated and even appreciated them anyway. He had volunteered, even, to do Horohoro's sister's nails when she had tried to ask her brother to do it, and despite Horohoro and Kororo's protests the girl had allowed.

Hao was some sort of work fiend, as they had all soon learned after breakfast. Washed the dishes, the stove, every where he had before and then some without even being asked, though Anna had told him to do the kitchen earlier so he was technically just redoing it.

Hao had more or less avoided the other inn occupants unless called (Anna did the calling), and so in the time he had to spend out of his room he would do his duty, leaving rooms that were absolutely disgusting one minute sparkling the next and for a while Horohoro thought one of the resident ghosts were on a cleaning spree.

No one ever had the chance really to question him on it, or they would feel now wouldn't be a good time because he was always busy with one thing or the other, spacing out in his cleaning sometimes to the point he won't notice you entered the room even if you announced yourself with a megaphone. They found it hard to glare at him after a while, more just smile smugly in triumph occasionally. The ever powerful Hao scrubbing toilets like it was his duty since the day he was born. Hehe.

Horohoro glanced back at his sister before looking to his friend. "Something is really wrong with him." He whispered, eyes narrowed a little. "He's all polite and he does nothing but clean and hide and act not like Hao! He's doing my sister's toenails dude! Not even _I _go near those things, and I'm her brother!"

"Hey!" Came an indignant bark from behind him. "I just haven't clipped them in a while because _somebody _keeps hiding my nail clippers!"

"Well maybe if you didn't keep taking my snowboard I wouldn't!"

"You practically sleep with that thing, somebody needed to make you give it some space or you'd end up marrying it!"

"You shut up! I-"

"WHY DON'T BOTH OF YOU IMBECILES SHUT UP, I'M TRYING TO READ!" Ren, who was upstairs, barked angrily.

"PUT A SOCK IN IT POINTY!" Both blue haired siblings screeched at the same time, before instantly regretting it as they heard someone flying down the steps, and soon they were being chased into the kitchen by a rabid chinese kid wielding a spear.

Yoh wanted to go and try and make peace before they, namely Ren, annihilated the kitchen, which from the sounds coming from it would be very soon, but instead he stopped a moment and looked at Hao, who had quietly slipped next to the television and crouched there when they had started to yell. His eyes were wide and an unreadable emotion was evident within them. Yoh frowned slightly and began to trot, slowly, over to where Hao sat.

Hao, who had been staring into space, jerked his head up when he caught a glimpse of Yoh out of the corner of his eyes. Then he gave no warning, just hopped to his feet and bolted upstairs before Yoh could open his mouth. Yoh blinked.

"...Hao?" Instead of said sealed shaman appearing, Amidamaru poofed into existence. "Amidamaru! Where have you been!" Yoh asked happily, having not seen the ghost the entire day and unable to look for him due to training.

Amidamaru smiled slightly. "Forgive me Yoh-dono, but Ive been watching Hao for you. I didn't think you'd want to come home and find him dead on the floor or anything, I'm sure your friends have faith in you but just in case."

Yoh hummed in acknowledgement of that absently, not appreciative acknowledgement but still acknowledgement. "Oh, thanks. Ugh, my legs are killing me, I think I'm gonna try and get some sleep. Big day of Anna's torture ahead of me. Well, night Amidamaru!" And with that Yoh walked past him with a lazy smile and a big yawn, stumbling up the stairs.

Amidamaru stared after his shaman. He had always known Yoh to take most things calmly but... he seemed almost like he didn't much care at all. He hadn't even had a chance to ask what he meant by his 'exactly' last night. Or to tell him how earlier that day just his voice had made Hao pratically piss his pants.

Yoh managed to drag himself up the stairs, and was now in the process of dragging himself through the hall. He stopped a moment in front of Hao's door. His eyes narrowed, and he straightened himself a bit to better look at the door, a door that was between him and... _him._ He, who had killed so many, he, who was supposed to be dead, he...

Yoh put a hand to his forehead to rub his temples, his real tiredness showing through making him look so much older. He... who deserved a chance? Sometimes, Yoh felt like... nevermind. He was tired. Very, very tired. He trudged on, towards his room. practically falling on the door to open it, he stumbled inside with drunken like movements and collapsed on the futon. He could already feel the comforting embrace of sleep calling him, soothing him and his stressed mind. A thought managed to wriggle it's way to the front of his brain before he passed out.

_"When I came in... had Hao called me Yoh-sama?"_

* * *

Hao lay staring at the ceiling, frowning and rolling over. This was too comfortable. He was so used to sleeping on a cold stone floor, he couldn't help but feel weird in the soft, thick sheets of the futon. He grunted softly before rolling off of it onto the wooden floor.

Hao shuddered a bit as he recalled earlier events of that day, with nothing really else to do. Yoh was back, so he had no desire to be roaming around outside his room, but he wasn't very tired so sleep wouldn't happen soon anyway.

Everyone had seemed surprised or confused or angry at some point when he addressed them as lord, sama, or something similar. Why was that? It was his duty to make sure they knew they were above him and he was bellow, right? At least that's what Marco had taught him. He shuddered again as he remembered something, from the times he had been... foolish.

_Flashback!  
_

_Hao spit out the blood in his mouth and then looked back up at Marco, dark eyes burning with defiance he didn't know he would lose yet. Marco scowled at him briefly, before putting on a twisted smirk._

**"Now, let's try this again."** _The blonde hissed, smacking the cowhide whip in his hand lightly. _**"I want you to address me, and do it properly!"**_  
_

_Hao absent mindedly tugged at the chains that held his arms over his head, before smirking. _**"Good evening, Marco-Baka."**

_The sealed pyro shaman was awarded with a sharp whip across the face, and he could feel his nose crack and blood begin to ooze down. It was ignored._

**"Wrong answer."** _Marco growled, whipping him across the face again before grinning madly._ **"You need to remember this, Slave-"**

**"Not my name." **

_That earned him a world of hurt again, this time the whip hitting him across the forehead and he bit his lip to keep from crying out._

**"You need to remember this, _Slave._ You are nothing, nothing at all, I am above you, Lyserg is above you, everything, down to this little insect,"** _He raised his finger to show a random lady bug that was crawling on it (how it wasn't thrown off or slid off by the blood on his fingers he doesn't know) _**"is superior to you in every way. You are nothing, you can be squashed in mere seconds and no one will care, and it's simply because you are nothing." **_Marco closed his hand and crushed the innocent little lady bug to emphasize his point. _**"You must therefore treat all who are above you as you should, with utmost respect and submission no matter who they are."**

_Hao and Marco had a bit of a glaring contest before Hao tilted his head and looked up at him with an innocent expression. _

**"It's bad luck to kill a ladybug, you know."**

_And for pointing that important detail out he was rewarded with a swift slap to the face, followed by a whip in his gut._

_End of da Flashback_

Hao found himself shuddering once more at the memory, wondering how he could have ever acted so horribly in front of his master, Marco-sama. He found himself wondering if he would go back. If he should try and go back.

Hao had some very mixed feelings about where he wanted to be, here there was much less pain but there was his rightful master and duties. He fell asleep finally after a while hard thinking, face still contorted in an expression of deep thought and anxiety. Amidamaru, who had been watching him carefully from the shadows, allowed his solem expression to have a bit of a frown at he observed Hao's behaviour. Then it went back to the stony look, and he continued his duty.

* * *

**Puppy's Post It: *Forces self out of hiding* Hehehe, wow, I haven't updated in like a month n_n" I'm really sorry about that readers, between laziness and trying to squeeze out the most in summer Ive been really tired lately. The reason for this? I stay up late reading One Piece fanfics. Like 3 in the morning late. n_n"" Yeah, I know, boob move on my part, but I can't help it! One Piece is so good and when I can't watch it I read about it! Arf! Aceeeeee! Marcoooooo! Thaaaaaatch! ASL! XD Arf arf arf! If you don't know what One Piece is, go watch and/or read it! It's an awesome anime, and though I haven't read them really myself probabaly an equally as awesome manga! It's one of my obsessions now, if you haven't checked my profile :D Ugh, what annoys me is a buttmunch like this Marco shares the same name as Marco the Phoenix of the Whitebeard Pirates. One Piece Marco, your such an awesome pineapple-shaped head phoenix guy, and Shaman King Marco, your just a... your just a big ole noobnugget. n3n Hopefully Ace and Thatch don't have a noobish person in some other anime or manga that bears the same name. All 3 of y'all are way too cool for that, arf! And the ASL gang! Ace, Sabo, Luffy, love ya guys! Ace your such a good big bro! Hao, well, in this story I don't mean you but in general, maybe take a few tips from Ace. He can show you how to show affection for your little bro without seeming like it most of the time. Or at least how to wave it off if someone notices ;) Arf, oops, rambling about something that's not even in this fandom... my bad! Arf arf, but One Piece is just so awesome! Maybe I'll even start writing some stories for it! Geez, I can already tell I'm about to stray off topic again so I'll just stop now, maybe try and get some sleep or something. Or just read more One Piece. Yeah, probably that. ;P To make up for all my boobishness, I hope you guys enjoyed the extra long chapter! Over 5,000 words! Hurrah! Arf, biscuits for readers and reviewers! (Woah this is one big post it n-n)**


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